Kittery residents worry about town’s future at forum

Saturday

Jan 5, 2013 at 2:58 PMJan 5, 2013 at 3:00 PM

KITTERY, Maine — It may be time to move forward to a new era in town, many at a community forum Saturday agreed, but they said the past will haunt the town if government officials do not find ways to be more proactive, transparent and forward-thinking.

Deborah McDermott

KITTERY, Maine — It may be time to move forward to a new era in town, many at a community forum Saturday agreed, but they said the past will haunt the town if government officials do not find ways to be more proactive, transparent and forward-thinking.

More than 300 residents came to a standing-room-only forum at the community center called by the Town Council to discuss the situation surrounding the resignations of former Police Chief Paul Callaghan and Town Manager Robert Markel.

Callaghan left office Dec. 21 and interim Police Chief Theodor Short, Eliot’s chief, has since taken over until a new chief is selected. Markel leaves Jan. 24. Both were hired in January 2012.

The forum was also intended to gather residents’ input on a path forward to hiring new people to fill those slots.

Melissa Paly was one of a number of residents and councilors who wondered if the damage already done could deter qualified candidates.

“How can we possibly attract qualified candidates when the community is in chaos,” she asked. “We know what a fabulous town this is, but we need to convince the best candidates to come here.”

Town councilors Judy Spiller and Jeff Thomson agreed.

“At this point, no one in their right mind would want to come into this unsettled situation,” which is why she recommended what Markel has also recommended. She suggested the town hired an interim town manager for six months, and during that time embark on a public, transparent process for a new town manager in which the public is involved. That new town manager would then hire the new chief.

Thomson said the applicant pool when Markel was hired was “rather weak,” with Markel standing out clearly over the other candidates. Any candidate now would only need to go to “local media outlets” to discover these recent problems.

“I pledge to you I will do the best I can to bring in the best town manager,” Thomson said, “but I have significant trepidation about how that process will work.”

Resident Sarah Brown confined her comments to a search for a new police chief, and said the current police force is still in the grips of the “unsavory culture” of former Chief Edward Strong.

“We had a brothel in our town for how many years,” she asked.

Brown urged the council to “bring the police department to a place of pride and strength and thoughtful intelligence. I worry that this process will bring us back to a place where we won’t have strong leadership to bring Kittery into the future.”

Resident and former councilor Dennis Estes, who pulled no punches in his ire about the current situation, said “I am hard pressed to believe that there are qualified candidates who would come to Kittery. We’ve got to change how we do things, and we’ve got to do it now.”

Estes and others said they were stunned to learn none of the councilors knew about problems in the police department before officers took a vote of no confidence in Callaghan last September. It’s since become clear that problems began to arise not long after Callaghan arrived.

None of them also knew in advance that Markel and Callaghan were resigning at a Dec. 10 council meeting.

“Speaking as a taxpayer and citizen, how you were caught off guard I find hard to comprehend,” he said. “As a governing body, it seems to me some of you must have had the feeling that ill will was going on.”

Referring to the Dec. 10 council meeting, he said, “the top official in the community reads a letter of resignation from (the police chief) and then goes on to read his own resignation, and you don’t have any idea that they were going to do that?”

Estes said he would not have accepted Markel’s resignation that night, but instead would have investigated “what was going on.”

Council chairman George Dow and Councilor Leo Guy said they were comfortable with their vote to accept Markel’s resignation.

“I will speak only for myself, and I can appreciate the community’s shock, but I believe…my choice to accept the resignation is the right thing for the community as a whole,” Dow said.

“We have had several executive sessions…(regarding) employment issues with the town manager,” Guy said. “I had concerns about him going back to September. When his resignation was tendered, it was not on my radar screen not to vote” to accept it.

Several residents shouted out that they wanted to hear Councilor Jeff Brake speak.

“We should hear from all the councilors,” someone shouted. Brake declined to comment, causing an angry outburst from several people.

Police detective Ray Hazen, a resident of Kittery Point, asked Short if he’s found a dysfunctional police force since his arrival.

“I’ve found an organization that is looking for leadership and wants to move forward,” he said. “As for issues of dysfunction, in the short time I’ve been here, I agree that there’s enough blame to go around. A breakdown in communication was ultimately what led to this, but I don’t think anything is beyond correction.

Short added that he has seen other towns go through what Kittery is now experiencing.

“You deserve transparency,” he said, “but you also deserve to move forward and heal from this.”

Never miss a story

Choose the plan that's right for you.
Digital access or digital and print delivery.

Advertise

Original content available for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons license, except where noted.
seacoastonline.com ~ 111 New Hampshire Ave., Portsmouth, NH 03801 ~ Privacy Policy ~ Terms Of Service